SUNDAY READ
Calhoun’s gym at St. Joe’s houses memories, but those he impacted do not forget
WEST HARTFORD — In hushed tones an emotional John A. Cavolowsky, director of NASA’s Transformative Aeronautics Concepts Program, told the story of his high school basketball days far behind him and a Celtics camp he attended.
Sam Jones was talking at the end, bragging on a camper who was going to MIT, and Cavolowsky went up afterward to ask who that was. He dreamed of going to MIT too and wanted to meet the other kid.
“Sam Jones gave me a fatherly look and said, ‘I was talking about you son,’ ” Cavolowsky said.
His coach at Massachusetts’ Dedham High had told Jones all about him, and though Cavolowsky didn’t know if his admission was a done deal, Jim Calhoun did.
“I had no idea if I was good enough to make the grade or not, but he believed in me,” Cavolowsky said. “And it filled me with confidence.”
You may not have heard of John Cavolowsky, but he was one of dozens of “Calhoun’s guys” who came to the University of Saint Joseph on Thursday to speak as the school’s basketball arena was renamed “The James A. Calhoun Gymnasium.”
Calhoun, 80, is in the Naismith Hall of Fame due to his 26 years at UConn, which included three national titles and a baker’s dozen worth of NBA lottery picks.
He began as a high school coach first at Old Lyme and then at Dedham, where at age 28 he took over a losing team in a hockey town and went 28-1, winning a state championship in 1971. But his influence reaches far beyond basketball.
“He just opened up our eyes to a whole different way to think about what we need to do to meet our dreams,” said Cavolowsky, who was with a group of his old teammates. “He was fabulous.
“He made it awfully clear to us what we needed to do to be successful, and to our credit we bought in. We took it on faith that this 28-year-old guy, a kid basically, was going to be able to teach us things that we wouldn’t otherwise know.”
Then it was on to Northeastern, where Calhoun coached J. Keith Motley. Though Calhoun got him into coaching, Motley’s dream was to become a university president.
“[Calhoun] was the only one who didn’t laugh when I said that,” said Motley, who went on to become chancellor at UMass Boston, the first African American to serve in that role.
Then it was UConn and, finally, St. Joe’s, where he started up a men’s program and won a conference championship.
They told slightly different versions of the same story: a life changed by Calhoun’s coaching, cajoling, prodding and challenging.
“I never let anyone I love cheat himself,” Calhoun said when it was his turn.
“The impact is just providing you the environment for success on a daily basis and nurturing that success,” said Emeka Okafor, 2004 national champ and later an NBA player. “His core values remain the same at whatever university he’s at.
“He’s all in wherever he’s at, and he’s loved everywhere, despite his tough reputation. He’s a teddy bear, man.”
Okafor still calls upon one of Calhoun’s favorite admonitions: “Anything great is done with enthusiasm.”
Donny Marshall recalled Calhoun’s recruiting trip to Federal Way, Washington, where other coaches showed up in limos or expensive rental cars. Calhoun arrived in a cab, stayed all day and wanted to see all of the places Marshall hung out, telling his mother, “When he comes back here, he’ll be a man.”
Steve Pikiell, who played at UConn and has gone on to a long coaching career, making history these days at Rutgers, recalled the night Calhoun pulled him out of a game after a turnover four seconds in. But they still talk all the time.
“In life there are very few people who are going to give you advice with no agenda and no strings attached,” Pikiell said. “For me, my father was like that, and my mom, and after that Coach Calhoun. When you call Coach, you know he’s going to give you the best advice. And you learn the lessons you learned as a player that you didn’t quite understand.
“The gym is his church, it’s what he believes in and where he does his best work.”
Calhoun stepped aside as St. Joe’s coach last year, turning the program over to another of his guys, Glen Miller, and has since been working tirelessly to raise money for the school’s Legacy Fund. If all the former players who came to say ‘thank you had given a speech, the event would still be going on. Calhoun, surrounded by his grandchildren, never seemed prouder.
“The idea behind it is, at different points of my life, we all need people,” he said. “At different points in my life, I had people that helped me, that led me to believe I wasn’t going in the right direction. It was very important.”
Dom Amore can be reached at
damore@courant.com
